Frost & Sullivan Recognizes Significant Achievement In W. L. Gore & Associates PRIMEA MEAs for Fuel Cell Vehicles

Palo Alto, Calif. — July 18, 2006 — Frost & Sullivan recognized W. L. Gore & Associates’ Fuel Cell Technologies business with the 2006 Technology Leadership Award in the field of transportation fuel cell membranes for its continued development and improvement of the GORE™ PRIMEA® Series 57 family of membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs).

GORE PRIMEA Series 57 MEAs promise to deliver higher durability than existing MEAs, while maintaining high power density and operational flexibility that is required for commercialization of fuel cells in the transportation market segment.

“Transportation applications are some of the harshest environments for the working of membranes and these applications are also quite cost restrictive, hence requiring component manufacturers to deliver very high durability products while minimizing the cost of the overall system,” says Frost & Sullivan Senior Research Analyst Vijay Shankar Murthy. "The MEA itself contains expensive materials such as precious metal catalysts, the amount of which must be reduced as far as possible. In addition, the MEA can impact the overall system cost by determining the maximum operating temperature, relative humidity requirements, and voltage limitations, which in turn impacts the size and cost of the cooling and humidification systems, as well as power control strategies.

GORE PRIMEA Series 57 MEAs take a great step toward meeting the demands of this market. Recent additions to this product family provide significantly longer lifetime under severe operating conditions, allowing higher temperatures and drier operating conditions to be utilized in the stack. Lower voltage decay rates have been achieved through use of new electrode technologies, while simultaneously lowering the precious metal content from previous MEA generations.

GORE™ PRIMEA MEAs are based on Gore’s proprietary micro-reinforced composite membranes. This technology is the foundation that allows the MEA to achieve a unique combination of high durability and performance attributes that have proven to be so valuable to this emerging industry. Recent advancements in this product family have allowed Gore to demonstrate the lifetime targets required by the automotive industry under aggressive automotive duty cycle testing. This is an important milestone, allowing automotive fuel cell developers to place increasing numbers of fleet vehicles in the field to gather real-world operating experience and raise public awareness and acceptance of fuel cell vehicles.

“PRIMEA Series 57 has been constantly improved over the last five years and its present state is a result of an unmatched mix of expertise and technology in this particular field,” explains Murthy. “Gore’s own advancements in micro-reinforced composites, as well as electrode technology have contributed to the present design, and this could be the answer that carmakers and stack manufacturers are looking for in next-generation fuel cell systems.”

W L Gore has a proven track record of delivering cutting edge solutions to some of the most cost-and skill-intensive industries around the world. Its expertise in material technologies among others has enabled it to contribute significantly in fields ranging from aerospace and defense to healthcare. The company has built upon this rich experience in the field of materials for over a decade to deliver high-performance membranes now to various fuel cell companies.

W L Gore’s MEAs are available commercially and they represent a superior technological make-up that will be difficult to emulate by any standard. It is among the few elite companies that are into high volume manufacturing of these MEAs, which makes it all the more appealing for bulk requirements in the automotive industry.

The Frost & Sullivan 2006 Technology Leadership Award recognizes W L Gore’s superior MEA technology–GORE PRIMEA Series 57 MEAs –as a cutting edge solution to the automotive industry’s requirements of high durability and high power density while simultaneously reducing costs.

Each year Frost & Sullivan presents this Award to a company that has pioneered the development and introduction of an innovative technology into the market; a technology that has either impacted or has the potential to impact several market sectors. This Award recognizes a company’s successful technology development that is expected to bring significant contributions to the industry in terms of adoption, change, and competitive posture. It also recognizes the leadership of the company in the successful promotion of the technology and its continuing impact in technology commercialization.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.

Perhaps best known for its consumer products like GORE-TEX® fabric and ELIXIR® guitar strings, Gore is a leading manufacturer of thousands of advanced technology products for the electronics, industrial, fabrics and medical markets. The company is headquartered in Newark, Delaware, posts sales of almost $2 billion, and employs more than 7,000 associates at 45 facilities throughout the world.

The Gore Fuel Cell Technologies business was started in 1995 as a natural outgrowth of the company’s fluoropolymer membrane development and electrochemistry core expertise.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company’s industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services, and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. For more information, visit http://www.awards.frost.com.

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Stacie Jones

Frost & Sullivan

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